Kara M.
Yelp
My husband and I had driven up from Fort Lauderdale. We were tired and grumpy from dealing with a stressful situation back in South FL and a long car ride.
We checked into our rental and decided it would probably be best to eat something before exploring to avoid becoming hangry.
I love Italian food and have a temp crown on my tooth, so this place fit the bill for my favorite cuisine and something I could easily chew.
I turned to Yelp to see what was super close and had good ratings. Cafe Cibo popped up and was only about a 6 minute walk from our lodging. My husband and I are often thrilled when we don't have to get in the car, especially in an area where we aren't familiar with the roads.
We began our stroll over, we arrived sometime before 2 and the restaurant was fairly empty.
We were seated on the patio, which is really nice and provides a lot of shade from the sun.
The sangria sounded good after our rough morning and was $15 for a carafe. We ended up getting 4 glasses total out of it. I would say the flavor was really nice, but the drink wasn't too strong.
We placed our orders. If you are on a budget, they had some nice looking lunch specials.
I'm usually a very detailed trip planner, but I only had a small list of things to see in the Tampa/Saint Pete area. I figured I would ask the waitress what spots she recommended. It was a nice enough day out, so I was in a be outdoors, explore and walk around mood. She provided me with some good ideas of things to do in the area.
Our bread came out and it was good, two thumbs up for the yummy dipping sauce.
Now how would the meals be? I should point out that I lived in NY for the majority of my life. I am by no means a foodie, but I'm fussy when it comes to Italian and pizza. Have to say, the food here was fabulous!
My manicotti was fresh, nicely seasoned and tasty. It had just the right amount of sauce too. It reminded me a lot of the manicotti that I used to love at Carrabbas, which is no longer on the menu.
My husband had shrimp parm and he enjoyed it.
Our waitress came out with a 2 page list of tourist things to do in the area, this was so nice of her to do for us!
Overall a nice dining experience, if I lived in Saint Pete I could see myself eating here once or twice a month.